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Sony
For the purpose of this assignment, the company that I chose to research is Sony. I selected this company because of the number of technological venues it’s tackled over the years and the success that it’s had in doing so. Sony was founded in 1946, and is based in Japan. At the time of its founding, the company itself was originally known as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering. Years later, the name of the company was changed to Sony “from ‘sonus,’ Latin for ‘sound,’ and ‘sonny,’ meaning ‘little man’” (Biesada, History, 2013). In the years that followed, Sony went on to produce several groundbreaking technological devices, including “the first home video recorder” (Biesada, History, 2013) and “the first solid-state condenser microphone” (Biesada, History, 2013). Over the years, Sony has turned its hand to developing and experimenting with a variety of technologies, including televisions, cameras, computers, videogames, gaming consoles, and semiconductors, to name only a few. As Sony is active in so many different areas of the market, it is constantly competing with a variety of other companies on a daily basis. These companies include Apple Inc., Microsoft, Nintendo, Panasonic, Disney, Universal Studios, Intel, AMD, Samsung, and Qualcomm. Sony has developed several products with regard to semiconductors in particular, including its Red Semiconductor Laser Array and its Blue-Violet Semiconductor Laser. The former sports “7.2W optical output power and a 635nm wavelength” (Sony, 2013) and “is ideal as a light source for projectors and other types of displays” (Sony, 2013). The latter originally came to fruition after many years and a number of trials involving the production of blue-violet light. Specifically, it was hampered by “the difficulty of crystallizing the compound semiconductor needed to produce this light” (Sony, Blue-Violet Semiconductor Laser, 2013). Sony has also manufactured various other devices like laser diodes and image sensors. A number of portable devices, such as computers and cameras, make use of these. Sony’s management structure is fairly extensive, and entails a wide variety of different occupations. Leading the company is the chairman, Howard Stringer. Next in line is Ryoji Chubachi - vice chairman, followed by Kazuo Hirai - president and CEO. Below these individuals are several executive vice presidents, including Masaru Kato - EVP and CFO, Keiji Kimura - EVP of Intellectual Property and Disc Manufacturing, and Tadashi Saito - EVP and Chief Strategy Officer. Sony’s financial history is quite an interesting topic to delve into. Over the years, the company has earned a great deal of revenue, though it has suffered significant losses as well. Over a decade ago, Sony’s PlayStation gaming consoles provided the company with increased success and an abundance of revenue. However, Sony found itself having trouble not long after this, and it lost much of the money that it had earned. At the moment, Sony’s revenue stands at $72.157 billion. Although the company’s revenues are lower, its Gross Profit Margin is higher than it’s been in the last five years. Additionally, its Gross Profit Margin is increasing, and is currently projected to be at 34.05%. With regard to its employees, Sony has always done its best to ensure that individuals that work at the company feel like part of a team. Akio Morita, Sony’s founder and previous chairman, had “stressed to new employees that each employee had to seek happiness in his or her work and to decide personally whether to spend the rest of his or her working life at Sony” (Rao, 2009). Despite this, Sony has had to cut numerous jobs in recent years in an effort to recoup some of the losses that it has suffered. References Biesada, A. (2013). Competitors. Retrieved from Hoover's Online: http://eres.medaille.edu:2292/H/company360/competitorsList.html?companyId=41885000000000 Biesada, A. (2013). History. Retrieved from Hoover's Online: http://eres.medaille.edu:2292/H/company360/history.html?companyId=41885000000000 Biesada, A. (2013). Income Statement. Retrieved from Hoover's Online: http://eres.medaille.edu:2292/H/company360/incomeStatements.html?companyId=41885000000000 Biesada, A. (2013). People List. Retrieved from Hoover's Online: http://eres.medaille.edu:2292/H/company360/people.html?companyId=41885000000000 Rao, S. R. (2009, April 2). Human Relations at Sony. Retrieved from CiteMan.com: http://www.citeman.com/5218-human-relations-at-sony.html Sony. (2013). Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony Sony. (2013). Blue-Violet Semiconductor Laser. Retrieved from Sony: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/technology/theme/laser_diode_01.html Sony. (2013). Red Semiconductor Laser Array. Retrieved from Sony: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/technology/theme/laser_array_01.html Sony. (2013). Sony Corp. Info. Retrieved from Sony: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/ Sony. (2013). Technology from a Product Point of View. Retrieved from Sony: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/technology/product/index.html